Cheques blamed for late payments

The widespread use of cheques as a primary means of payment by companies is one of the main barriers to eradicating Ireland’s late payment culture, a Central Bank study indicates.

The research has found that Ireland remains one of a small number of EU member states to still use cheques for regular payment purposes. Furthermore, Ireland ranks second only to France in terms of intensive cheque use.

According to the Central Bank, the main users of cheques here are businesses, despite the fact that companies in most other EU countries no longer use this method of payment.